Technology

Global Times: China’s merchandise trade expands 15.3% in first 5 months

Published

2 months ago

June 12, 2026

BEIJING, June 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — In bustling hotels and restaurants in Japan, a fleet of delivery robots made by Chinese company Pudu Robotics are zipping through crowded dining halls with remarkable agility. Balancing trays of steaming hot dishes and fragrant coffee, these cheerful machines skillfully navigate among tables, dodge chatting guests, and deliver orders with pinpoint accuracy.

Whether delivering food, welcoming customers at sidewalk cafés, performing precise tasks on advanced vehicle and aviation production lines or even lending a steady hand in surgical suites, Chinese robots have been making inroads into the world. These widespread real-world applications underscore how high-tech products such as robots are powering a new surge in China’s foreign trade, injecting fresh momentum into the country’s economic engine.

China’s foreign trade has maintained momentum, with the value of goods trade jumping by 15.3 percent year-on-year to reach 20.68 trillion yuan ($3.05 trillion) in the first five months, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed on Tuesday.

The market-beating performance was fueled by a number of positive factors, including strong global demand for China’s high-tech and electronic products driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) wave, as well as a series of preferential trade arrangements, Chinese observers pointed out.

They stressed that these figures underscore China’s irreplaceable role in underpinning global supply chain stability and resilience.

Lü Daliang, director of the GAC’s Department of Statistics and Analysis, said that China’s foreign trade value exceeded 4 trillion yuan for a third consecutive month as of May, sustaining a positive trajectory, China Central Television reported.

China has vigorously deepened pragmatic economic and trade cooperation with its partners this year, and China is always a stabilizing force for global trade, he said.

Tian Yun, a Beijing-based economist, told the Global Times on Tuesday that with the global economy facing pressure and a volatile geopolitical situation, the impressive growth rate showed that “China’s foreign trade engine is built on a stable and solid foundation, while displaying new vitality and strong growth momentum.”

He noted that the data again highlighted the country’s irreplaceable position in the global supply chain and the continuous enhancement of the international competitiveness of Chinese products.

Boom in high-tech exports

The acceleration in China’s exports of high-tech gadgets made headlines across global media outlets. Reuters reported China’s trade figures on Tuesday under the headline “China rides AI wave as exports surge past forecast.” Bloomberg, in an article headlined “AI supercycle propels China’s trade with 111 percent boom in chip sales,” noted that the global investment supercycle in AI is driving up prices and demand for hardware made by the world’s manufacturing powerhouse.

Exports rose 11.8 percent year-on-year in the first five months, with high-tech and high value-added mechanical and electrical products up 18.4 percent and accounting for more than 60 percent of total exports. Imports soared 20.5 percent as domestic demand continued to improve, customs data showed.

Among factors supporting the stellar double-digit growth, Chinese analysts pointed to the global AI wave, which drove surging demand for China’s high-tech products, ranging from robotics, AI accelerators, and data center equipment to photovoltaic panels and intelligent manufacturing systems.

“The heating-up in global AI investment fueled further price increases for chips, computer components, and electronic parts, which gave further drive to China’s export value in May,” Feng Lin, executive director of the research and development department at Orient Golden Credit Rating, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The rating company provided figures on AI-related exports, which showed that in May, the value of chip exports more than doubled, while that of automatic data processing equipment and its parts rose 66.1 percent year-on-year.

Feng also highlighted significant progress in domestic manufacturing transformation and upgrading, which boosted exports of new-energy vehicles and other high-tech products.

China’s cooperation with other economies as well as deeper integration into the global industrial chain has been consolidating and strengthening, analysts noted.

Among major trading partners, China’s trade with the US recorded a sharp rebound in May amid stabilizing bilateral trade and economic relations, according to a research note that Orient Golden Credit Rating sent to the Global Times. China’s exports to the US gained 35.4 percent year-on-year in May in dollar-denominated terms, while imports jumped 20.4 percent, the data showed.

In the first five months, China’s imports and exports with ASEAN and the EU grew by 16.6 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively. Trade with Belt and Road Initiative partner countries jumped 13.6 percent year-on-year.

Since May 1, China has fully rolled out zero-tariff treatment for all African countries that have diplomatic relations with China. In the first five months, China’s trade with Africa hit 1.14 trillion yuan, up 18.2 percent year-on-year. The figure broke through 1 trillion yuan for the period for the first time.

“Based on current trends, China’s foreign trade is highly likely to achieve double-digit growth in the first half of the year. This would mark one of the strongest trade performances in the past four to five years,” Tian said.

Feng warned that under the influence of geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East, international crude oil prices have surged, which has created inflation pressure and clouded the growth prospects of the global economy in the second half.

While external headwinds will inevitably weigh on the global economy, China’s stabilizing foreign trade growth will provide a crucial buffer, supporting not only its domestic economy but also contributing positively to global economic stability, analysts stressed.

“Taking into account the current geopolitical landscape, we expect China’s new-energy products to receive more orders in the coming months,” Tian noted, highlighting China’s dual role as both a stabilizer and a powerful driving force for the global supply chain.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-times-chinas-merchandise-trade-expands-15-3-in-first-5-months-302798844.html

SOURCE Global Times

Technology

San Jose City Employees Get Strike-Ready After Several Months of Stalled Contract Negotiations with City Administration

Published

36 minutes ago

July 28, 2026

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On Wednesday, July 29, hundreds of San Jose city employees and members of IFPTE Local 21 and MEF-AFSCME Local 101 will attend Strike School to learn what it means to strike and the laws that protect their right to strike. Organization around Strike School comes after months of stalled negotiations between city workers and the City Administration. Workers have signed a strike pledge and held several informational pickets to shed light on San Jose being the most thinly staffed agency in the state, as well as the City’s implementation of AI without any guardrails, which further jeopardizes quality public services. Workers are forced to do more with less across all city departments. This Strike School session comes as the second of two- the first took place on Saturday, July 25, with hundreds of members in attendance.

Who: Hundreds of City of San Jose employees represented by IFPTE Local 21 and MEF-AFSCME Local 101. Spokespeople will be available for interviews before the members-only program.

What: San Jose Strike School Session #2

When/Where: Wednesday, July 29, 2026, at San Jose First United Methodist Church (24 N 5th St, San Jose, CA 95112). The program begins at 5:30 pm; registration begins at 5:00 pm

Visuals: Workers in blue, green, and teal union shirts, with banners and picket signs

BACKGROUND: In June, after receiving the City’s Last, Best, and Final Offer (LBFO) and working to reach a deal before contract expiration and City Council’s summer recess, San Jose workers called for mediation in order to reach a fair agreement.

Now, at the end of July, members of both unions have been without a contract for over a month. Instead of investing in our community, city officials have elected to spend taxpayer money on corporate giveaways through massive contracts with ineffective AI companies and an outrageous $325 million subsidy towards hockey arena renovations. The City could develop a strategy that ensures corporations pay their fair share from benefitting directly from city services. Instead, San Jose insists on cutting taxes for some of the largest corporations that occupy the city, while residents and working families pay more. Workers are preparing to go on strike if necessary.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/san-jose-city-employees-get-strike-ready-after-several-months-of-stalled-contract-negotiations-with-city-administration-302837042.html

SOURCE IFPTE Local 21

Technology

Modine Publishes 2026 Sustainability Report

Published

36 minutes ago

July 28, 2026

RACINE, Wis., July 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Modine (NYSE: MOD), a diversified global leader in thermal management technology and solutions, today announced the publication of its 2026 Sustainability Report. Titled Purpose-Driven Engineering, the report highlights the company’s significant progress in environmental stewardship, including the early achievement of its 2030 targets for both energy and water intensity, alongside major strides in product innovation and strategic transformation.

During fiscal year 2026, Modine accelerated its sustainability momentum. The company achieved reductions in energy and water intensity based on a 2018 baseline, surpassing its 2030 targets for both metrics. Additionally, Modine maintained strong, consistent progress on reducing absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions based on a 2018 baseline.

“FY26 represents a pivotal moment for Modine as global trends continue to accelerate demand for advanced thermal management solutions,” said Neil D. Brinker, Modine President and Chief Executive Officer. “As we move into this next phase of our company, our direction is both ambitious and intentional. We will continue expanding our portfolio of advanced data center and commercial HVAC&R technologies and partnering closely with customers to build infrastructure that is more resilient and more efficient.”

To support the sustainability of these growing markets, Modine introduced new solutions, expanded the use of AI across products and operations, and advanced efforts to further embed sustainability throughout its value chain. As part of these continuous improvement efforts, the company received independent limited assurance on its GHG emissions data for the first time.

Looking ahead, the company plans to develop new forward-looking targets to account for the transformational change in its business and the opportunity to continue serving customers in high-growth markets.

“Our progress this year, particularly in surpassing our 2030 energy and water intensity goals years ahead of schedule, is a testament to the dedication of our global workforce,” said Erin J. Roth, Modine Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer, who leads the company’s sustainability program. “Sustainability is embedded in how we operate and innovate, and we are proud of our collaborative efforts to engineer a cleaner, healthier world.”

Learn more about Modine’s efforts by reading our 2026 Sustainability Report, available at Modine.com.

About Modine
For more than 100 years, Modine has solved the toughest thermal management challenges for mission-critical applications. Our purpose of Engineering a Cleaner, Healthier World™ means we are always evolving our portfolio of technologies to provide the latest heating, cooling, and ventilation solutions. Through the hard work of more than 13,000 employees worldwide, our businesses advance our purpose with systems that improve air quality, reduce energy and water consumption, lower harmful emissions, enable cleaner running vehicles, and use environmentally friendly refrigerants. Modine is a global company headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin (U.S.), with operations in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. For more information about Modine, visit modine.com.

Contact: sustainability@modine.com

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SOURCE Modine

Technology

Firmable launches MCP, giving sales teams a direct line from any AI tool to verified company and contact data

Published

36 minutes ago

July 28, 2026

New Firmable MCP brings GTM data, CRM context, and buyer intent into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, and more.

SAN FRANCISCO and MELBOURNE, Australia, July 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Firmable, the AI-native B2B sales platform, launched its Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, giving revenue teams the ability to run go-to-market activity directly from the AI tools they already use. The Firmable MCP is available now through Firmable Connect, a new hub at https://connect.firmable.ai that brings together MCP, webhooks, native CRM integrations, and API access in one place.

Sales teams have spent the past two years bolting AI onto old workflows and legacy data platforms. Reps switch between five tabs to build a single account list. Agents hallucinate company details because they’re working from stale, unverified data. CRMs fill up with duplicate records nobody trusts. The AI tools got smarter. The connection to the data underneath them didn’t keep up.

That gap is exactly what Firmable was built to close. “Every competitor in this space talks AI now,” said Karthik Venkatasubramanian, co-founder and Chief Product & Technology Officer at Firmable. “Most of them mean an AI layer sitting on top of a legacy database. Firmable is AI-native from the ground up, continuously sourcing, assembling, and refreshing accurate data and buying signals, not retrofitting an old system to sound like a new one.”

Firmable’s Lead GTM Engineer Asher Chua will introduce the MCP connector and illustrate its use in a live and recorded webinar on August 12. Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/4817852096930/WN_asz65zH-RXeB85Crg1mlqg

Kieran Krohn is Head of Growth at ScaleStation, a Firmable and HubSpot partner specializing in GTM strategy and processes. “We’re big fans of Firmable and have been impressed with the quality of their data, which is why we recommend them to our customers,” he said. “As we move deeper into a world of AI, we find it more and more useful to be able to leverage Claude as the operating layer that connects into our different systems. Having access to Firmable’s data via MCP makes a huge difference in being able to pull that data and manipulate it with intelligence.”

One connection, five unique processes beneath

The Firmable MCP gives almost any AI tool – Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, Codex, or Cursor – direct access to the Firmable B2B data stack. What makes it different comes down to five layers working together, continuously, before a rep ever types a prompt:

AI-native sourcing. Firmable’s proprietary AI pulls from hundreds of datasets to build its own map of the market, rather than reselling the same licensed feeds most other vendors use. That means more company profiles, deeper decision-maker detail, and stronger mobile and email coverage. Teams switching from Apollo or ZoomInfo consistently uncover meaningful net-new contacts on day one, and in head-to-head testing, Firmable delivers significantly higher verified mobile coverage than these legacy vendors in the same market.Structure at scale. AI agents map, resolve, and clean every record automatically, stripping out bots, inactive accounts, and stale profiles before anything reaches a user. Inefficient manual list curation is not required.Refreshed and verified. Database segments refresh continuously, and every record is cross-checked against live signals, so sellers aren’t calling a number that was disconnected two months ago or emailing someone who changed jobs in the spring.Insights at speed. AI agents scan constantly for what matters: role changes, hiring surges, funding rounds, and surface it as an assigned CRM action, not as a chart buried in a dashboard.Delivered for action. All of this reaches reps wherever they already work, in the Firmable app, through the new MCP connector in Claude and ChatGPT, via two-way CRM sync, or through webhooks and API access for custom workflows.

A rep can now ask their AI assistant to build a list of mid-market SaaS companies in San Francisco and map the buying committee at each one, and get verified, ready-to-action results in one step instead of ten.

Built-in guardrails, not just built-in AI

Firmable’s MCP marketplace, part of Firmable Connect, already contains an industry-leading set of 540 pre-built skills and prompts.

Some, like CRM Push Prep, add a layer that most AI tools skip. Before any list is written to Salesforce, HubSpot, or Microsoft Dynamics 365, CRM Push Prep previews exactly what will be created and what will be updated; flags duplicates; shows the cost and waits for the rep to confirm the list by name. No AI tool gets to write to a CRM unsupervised.

Other popular skills include Account Brief, which pulls firmographics, tech footprint, and ICP fit into one structured answer, and Buying Committee Mapper, which grounds its recommendations in real, verified Firmable contacts weighted by what the rep is selling.

Firmable Connect: one platform, four ways in

Firmable Connect is the new home for this capability. Alongside the MCP, the platform offers webhooks that push job and role changes, funding rounds, and intent spikes straight into Slack or any workflow tool; native two-way sync for HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Microsoft Dynamics 365; and direct API access for teams building on Firmable data. Setup takes seconds: install the MCP, authenticate with OAuth, and run a first GTM skill in under two minutes.

“We didn’t want to be another data vendor with an API bolted on,” said Leigh Jasper, co-founder and co-CEO of Firmable. “Other tools hand you a database and wish you luck, but Firmable is your AI sales teammate. We wanted to meet revenue teams inside the tools they’ve already adopted for AI, and to make sure what shows up there is data they trust enough to act on immediately, with the context they need. Smarter data, sharper timing, that’s the whole bet behind Firmable Connect.”

The launch lands as Firmable accelerates its expansion into the US and Canada, building on its established base across Australia, New Zealand, and wider APAC. The MCP is available today, with a free trial for new users.

Firmable MCP is available now at https://connect.firmable.ai/mcp, where the full skill and prompt marketplace can be browsed, and downloaded into your AI tool. Teams can start a free trial at https://app.firmable.com/sign-up.

About Firmable

Firmable is an AI-native B2B sales platform, your AI sales teammate, that helps revenue teams find, understand, and connect with the right buyers at the right time. Combining verified company and contact data with CRM context, buyer intent, and agentic AI, Firmable powers go-to-market teams across the US and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia. www.firmable.ai

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/firmable-launches-mcp-giving-sales-teams-a-direct-line-from-any-ai-tool-to-verified-company-and-contact-data-302836625.html

SOURCE Firmable